How Has Neopets Changed You?

I have to admit, Neopets has not been just a gaming website I occasionally visit when I'm bored. It's become a gorgeous hobby full of fun, friends and entertaining goals! I do my dailies every morning at 7 am, and surf the Neopets website for hours after getting home in the evening. I have more goals and ongoing projects on this website than I do in real life, and I've learned a lot from Neopets!

One thing that I'm especially grateful for is my newfound love of HTML and CSS. I was ignorant of both until I started playing Neopets and began tinkering with my user lookups and petpages. One day I decided to design a personally coded lookup on my side account "wakeful," and entered it in the User Lookup Spotlight a week later. To my absolute delight, I won the contest! After that, I was hooked! I created two personally coded galleries too, which each proceeded to win the Gallery Spotlight! Wow!

Right now, I'm designing a petpage that I hope will win the Site Spotlight. (Wish me luck!)

Another thing that I'm grateful for is the games, which are sometimes educational. Typing Terror, for instance, was just a game that I played in hopes of getting the avatar. I realized later, however, that playing that game taught me how to type better! I often mixed up the X and Z keys on my keyboard until I started playing Typing Terror every day. Now I type confidently without mixing up the X and Z keys, which is pretty cool!

I hauled myself to the Help Neoboard and asked the people there how Neopets has changed them. I was swamped with replies!

One person said that Neopets inspired them to do graphic design, and they were not alone! Tons of people chimed in about how Neopets is the most playful and joyful part of their lives, especially when they're overwhelmed by school or work. Neopets tends to draw the creativeness out of people, and I was humbled by the gorgeous drawings of my fellow Neopians!

Another person said that Neopets reinforced her eccentricities. I was curious as to whether she considered it a good thing, and she said yes! I tend to agree that Neopets brings out the control freaks in us all. For instance, Neopets has made me more neurotic, but at the same time, I love how my pets are organized, my browser bookmarks are organized, my dailies are organized, etc.

Many people said that Neopets stirred their imaginations! These users claimed that the Neopets website is so creative that it's great fun to come up with stories for their pets, in addition to entering stories and articles and comics to the Neopian Times.

Other users found that earning neopoints was an enjoyable hobby, though you'd think it would be more of a chore. Multiple users claimed that Neopets turned them onto stocks, inflation, and economics in general. I can't blame them... I once invested one million NP in the Neopets Stock Market a long time ago, and ended up selling those stocks for two million neopoints. That's a million neopoints in profit!

Patience was another important thing that people learned from Neopets. They learned to ignore people who started fights and liked to argue, choosing instead to be kind and generous peacekeepers. I admire these people! It's all I can do, personally, to ignore rude people on the Neoboards. I guess I simply need to learn to be more patient!

One user was pretty general about the ways in which he's learned patience on Neopets. According to "zfernbaugh": "I've learned to be patient from the shops, training, LC [Lenny Conundrum], BTY [Better Than You], and Habi [Habitarium]. I've learned to stay focused with the Altador Cup, GMC [Games Master Challenge], and Daily Dare. And I've learned how to think of everything as fun or good by copying the spin TNT throws on everything. (Krawk Island vanished? EVENT! Neoboards broke? AVATAR! People complaining about NC? MORE NC!)"

Lots of users agreed. According to "amulet_strawberry": "Neopets has taught me dedication to a goal, money saving skills, got me into art and writing, and has always helped me to unwind and get rid of stress (: and since I have horrible anxiety problems, that last one is a big deal to me."

One surprising thing that I learned about the users on Neopets is that many are using the Neoboards to practice English! I didn't think of the Help Neoboard as being visited by people from countries other than the USA, but visit they do! I gave them a hearty virtual hug and encouraged them to continue to interact with the users on the Help Neoboard, which I consider to be the nicest Neoboard of them all. (Fewer "grammar police," or people who nitpick about incorrect spelling and grammar.) Good luck, people who speak English as a second (or third, or fourth) language!

And do you know what I realized after chatting on the thread for an hour? I learned that Neopets has changed us all for the better, and never for the worse. What user has learned BAD things from Neopets? No one!

For example, one user named "_totchi" claimed: "Neo... helped me to stop being so obnoxious. I was 14 when I started, and a total n00b in the worst sense of the word. I was annoying. I spammed. I begged. I wouldn't leave people alone. But I stopped in the end, mainly because on Neo, there were a lot more people around to tell me what an idiot I was making of myself."

Hilariously enough, one funny thing that people learned from Neopets was to mistake real life for Neopets. For instance, "_totchi" said about the mixup: "Once, a while ago, when I was very low on money (in real life) I actually found myself thinking 'Eek, I better play some games!' xD I WAS also pretty sleep deprived at the time..."

I've done the same thing! When watching a show about penguins on television, I once found myself thinking, "Those Bruces are so cute!" And when typing various words, sometimes I'll use British spellings by accident instead of American spellings. For instance, "faerie" rather than "fairy."

Thanks, Neopets, for being the highlight of our lives! We're grateful for the fun times, the site events, the plots, and the everyday activities that are sometimes more sparkly and more remarkable than our plain workaday lives! Thank you for the pets, the games, the contests, and more! You've been with us for years and years, through our childhoods, our teenage years, and our adult lives!

Thank you, Neopets, and may you always have luck with finding more ways to entertain and uplift us! We all thank you, very much!